The wonderful world of Dirt……

Guess what I’m holding?

If you said a mason jar full of dirt that has been mixed with vinegar to create an explosive foaming frothy mixture you would be correct and also a disturbed individual. Why you ask did I combine dirt from my garden with half a cup of vinegar? To test wether the soil was acidic or alkaline. We have not had very good luck in the garden the past few years and before we planted seeds for the fall garden I wanted to try to get to the bottom of it.

Test #1) Mason jar half full of garden dirt combine small amount of water and couple of tablespoons of baking soda and shake if it fizzes and bubbles then you can safely assume you have acidic soil.

Test #2) Mason jar half full of garden dirt combine 1/2 cup of vinegar and again if it fizzes and bubbles then you can safely assume you have an overly alkaline dirt. If it explodes like a 5th grade science project then you can be assured you have the most alkaline dirt in the world…

What does this mean? Well if you do the test and your dirt does not respond to either test than you can feel very superior to those who’s dirt posses lesser qualities and quietly laugh to yourself in an evil Mr.Burns laugh…excellent! For those who have a reaction the best thing to do is get a ph testing kit from a local gardening store to find out exactly how big of a problem one has.

Once you find out exactly where you stand you can then work on amending your soil to increase or decrease its acidity. By adding things like wood ash,Lyme,organic material,sulfur,peat moss,coffee grounds etc. Which could take a while so probably the best plan of action would be to attempt to grow things that do well in your specific soil type.